Sunday, 25 November 2012

Photo Review: Thought Bubble 2012 Part 2

Last weekend the two day
Thought Bubble comic convention took place in Leeds as part of the week
long film festival. It is a true celebration of the diversity of the
modern British comics scene,
from veteran professionals, via all the various levels of small press,
to the lovingly crafted pieces that would seem as much at home in a
craft fair. There was something for everyone, from the hardened con-goer
wanting sketches or original art boards from
a specific artist to the children who walked around collecting "Phoenix
feathers" from the various contributors to that weekly comic to take
back to the title's own table.

Thought
Bubble 2012 was a great success and a very positive re-enforcement for
attendees and creators that despite dwindling sales in the weekly and
monthly publishing sector there remains
a great passion in Britain for comics in all their various forms.

Rather than review such a
large and diverse event instead we present a photo round up (in no
particular order) of a selection of the creators that exhibited at
Thought Bubble, plus a few others
that caught our attention along the way. With the event split over two
halls, part one covered (roughly) the Royal Armouries Hall while part two
covers the New Dock Hall.

Steve Tanner of Time Bomb Comics was there showing that Thought Bubble is family friendly behind the dealers tables as well as in front as his wife Suzanne and their little bomblette Sasha helped him promote the latest Time Bomb title, the western The Last Ride Of Henry Holden.

Just across from Time Bomb was Garen Ewing with his Rainbow Orchid stand. As well as handing "Phoenix feathers" out the children, Garen also had copies of all three individual volumes of The Rainbow Orchid, the new Complete Rainbow Orchid omnibus which, if the number of people walking around the hall with copies under their arms was anything to go by sold very well over the weekend, plus for those who thought that they already had all things Orchid, his newly self published Rainbow Orchid Supplement, a "DVD extras" publication of notes on the story, early sketches, adverts and interviews.

Artist Gary Erskine has many credits to his name over the last twenty years or so but the work that he is currently promoting is the Roller Grrrls concept with sketchbooks and posters currently available and the first issue of the comic due in 2013. Nuclear Miss-ile, Hot Wheel Roller Derby's number 17 (above), was one of the roller girls that was interested in his work..

Gary's fellow Scotch CornererGraeme Neil Reid was just along the isle with a wide selection of original art as well as prints available on his table. The "Zombie Maggie" illustration that Graeme produced as the cover for Overload issue 1 proved to be a major talking point over the weekend although it was his Star Wars and Doctor Who artwork that sold out first.

Next to Graeme were writer Jason Cobley (left) and artist Andrew Wildman (right) both of whom were promoting Frontier, their "Weird Wild West" story that was originally published in The DFC weekly comic and then collected by Print Media into a hardback book. As well as copies of Frontier, Jason was also selling the first issue of his new A4 anthology Amnesia Agents while Andrew had copies of his newgraphic novel Horizon.

There are more details of Jason's work on his blog and of Andrew's work on his Horizon website.

Joining Jason on the Sunday was artist Grant Perkins who, as well as selling prints and postcards of his work, was sketching away for most of the day on a variety of different subjects including this one of a stylised Judge Death.

Opposite Graeme, Jason and Andrew was the Improper Books table with two very industrious ladies giving away free preview comics for Improper's upcoming gothic fairy tale Porcelain. Written by Benjamin Read and beautifully illustrated by Chris Wildgoose (above with a copy of Porcelain and Butterfly Close) this graphic novel is due to be published in February 2013 and, based on the preview, should be worth the wait.

Also showing off a title that is not yet released was artist and writer Will Morris. Will has written and illustrated The Silver Darlings for Blank Slate Books which is due to be released very soon and, from the preview copy, looks lovely.

From two books that are not out yet to two that are - the first two books in Accent UK'sWesterNoir series. Among the many Accent UK titles on their table, WesterNoir Book 2 was getting its official release at Thought Bubble with writer Dave West (left) and artist Gary Crutchley (right) in attendance. Book 1 was reviewed on downthetubes here and the review of Book 2 will follow soon.

The University of Dundee's comics imprint UniVerse is used to publish anthologies of the work of the students enrolled on the uni's comics courses with Anthology One covering work of the students of the 2011-2012 DJCAD Comics Art and Graphic Novels module and the new Anthology Two, shown above by DJCAD lecturer and Anthology Two cover artist Phillip Vaughan, covering the work of the students in the 2011-2012 MLitt In Comics Studies. UniVerse has also just published The Amazing Mr X in conjunction with DC Thomson which prints the winners and a selection of the other entries in the 2012 Dundee Comics Prize as well as some original 1940s Mr X stories from The Dandy.

Details of ordering Anthology Two and The Amazing Mr X by post are available by e-mailing : universecomic@gmail.com

From Dundee to Dublin and Robert Curley of Atomic Diner Comics showing off his latest title, The Crimson Blade. As much as downthetubes focuses on British comics, we are more than happy to extend that to the entire British Isles, and with titles like the supernatural Rosin Duhb, the excellent Jennifer Wilde and the 2011 Irish Comics News Best Irish Comic award winner The League Of Volunteers, Atomic Diner are a publisher to keep an eye on.

Last but by no means least, two familiar faces to the British comics community, and the 2000AD contingent in particular, Richmond Clements (left) and Dave Evans/BOLT-01 (right) of Futurequake Press. The two 2000AD zines Zarjaz and Dogbreath may be the best known and widely distributed FQP titles but they also produce the SF theme Futurequake which has now reached its 22nd issue and the horror themed Something Wicked which has reached issue 8.

There are more details of all Futurequake Press' titles on their website.

The site downthetubes.net, which began publishing in 1999, is edited by John Freeman whose credits include editor of Doctor Who Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, Star Wars Magazine, and Marvel UK titles such as Overkill, Death's Head II, Warheads and others. He's currently editor of the upcoming Strip Magazine for Print Media Productions.

About the Writers:

• Matthew Badham has written features for Judge Dredd: The Megazine, the Forbidden Planet International blog and more

• Jeremy Briggs contributes news, reviews, interviews and historical articles on British comics. He is a guest writer on Steve Holland's UK comics history blog, Bear Alley, and has written for Comics International, TV Zone, Spaceship Away and Omnivistascope.

• David Hailwood has written comic strips for various publications, including TOXIC, Accent UK, Bulletproof and Futurequake. He also writes comedy material for TV, and regularly contributes to the Temple APA (a showcase for UK comic writers and artists).

• Andy Luke is a writer who draws: he's s created the eponymous Andy Luke's Comic Book, Gran, Absence: a comic about epilepsy, Hold the Phones, It's Alex Jones, and graphic novel, The Watch Thief. He's written about comics too, mainly for Bugpowder.com, and has been involved with the Caption comics festival in Oxford. He currently lives in Belfast with a large box of pasta and a 7ft tall cigarette, and can be found online at http://andy-luke.com and http://awriterwhodraws.com

• Ian Wheeler is a freelance writer who also edited the highly-acclaimed British comics fanzine Eagle Flies Again.